Savio’s Boyfriend Testifies About Encounter With Drew Peterson

A sketch of Drew Peterson during his murder trial. (Credit: Cheryl Cook/CBS)

UPDATED 08/10/12 1:34 p.m.

JOLIET, Ill. (CBS) — The man who was dating Kathleen Savio at the time she died testified Friday morning in the Drew Peterson murder trial.

Steve Maniaci testified that on March 1, 2004, he received a call from Mary Pontarelli, Savio’s friend and neighbor. She asked if he had seen Savio, and he said, “No, I’ve been trying to get a hold of her all day,” he testified.

Pontarelli said Peterson was at Savio’s house with a locksmith, and when Maniaci called Pontarelli back a short time later, she told him Savio was dead, he testified.

Maniaci rushed to Savio’s house and found Peterson standing outside. Maniaci testified that he asked Peterson “what the hell happened,” and he said he didn’t know.

Maniaci said he told Peterson, “I sure hope you don’t have anything to do with this,” and Peterson replied that he did not.

“I said, ‘Boy, this sure worked out well for you,’” Maniaci said. “He said, ‘She would have lost anyway.’”

Peterson was going through a divorce from Savio at the time. Maniaci said Peterson was calm when he saw the defendant.

Maniaci also testified about the last time he saw Savio, three nights before her body was found. They went to dinner, and then out for drinks, and when they got back to her house, he said, “We started fooling around and eventually had sex.”

Maniaci was shown photographs of bruises and abrasions on Savio’s back, arms and buttocks in pictures that were taken after she died. He said Savio did not have the marks on her body the night he saw her and looked “perfectly normal” at that time.

On cross-examination, Maniaci was asked, “You were inspecting her body for bruises, were you?” Maniaci said he was not.

Savio was Peterson’s third wife. Her body was found in a dry bathtub, and her death was initially ruled an accidental drowning. But in 2007, body was exhumed and her death was reclassified as a homicide, following the disappearance of Peterson’s fourth wife, Stacy.